8 Dividend Stocks Every Retiree Should Own 17 Tax Breaks You Won't Believe Are Real Are You Saving Enough for Your Retirement? Kiplinger's Financial Field Manual for Military Families What to Buy During MLK Weekend Sales Retailers love long holiday weekends for the simple reason that consumers have an extra day off from work to shop. That's why you'll find big sales happening around the Presidents Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays. Typically, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday has been an exception, with the focus more on service than spending. But that doesn't mean you can't find good deals on MLK weekend. You just need to be smart about shopping for the right things at the right places.SEE ALSO: Best Things to Buy During Winter Stores will welcome the business on the heels of a surprise drop in December retail sales in the U.S. Associating consumerism with the civil rights movements isn't an attractive strategy for retailers, he says. Instead, look for advertisements of “weekend sales,” “three-day sales” or “winter sales” from big-box retailers such as Kmart, Target and Walmart and department stores such as Kohl’s, JCPenney, Macy’s and Sears over the MLK weekend.
will likely discount select items, Vu says. Vice President Howard Schaffer. Shopping expert Brent Shelton of FatWallet says he expects more online retailers to offer deals this year than in past years. So there will be plenty of opportunities to get a variety of items at a discount. Here’s what you can expect to see marked down during MLK weekend sales – as well as clearance events throughout the month. What’s on sale … Bath and bedding items. Department stores and home-goods retailers have long held “white sales” in January featuring discounts on bed linens. Now those sales often include a variety of bed and bath items, as well as other home goods. Shelton says there will be plenty of white sales over MLK weekend, with discounts of 30% to 50%.The annual Consumer Electronics Show just wrapped up, so consumers will start seeing discounts on the current models of gadgets for which new models were debuted at the show. Shelton says that cameras, in particular, will be deeply discounted this weekend.
Look for markdowns on other electronics to appear later in January and throughout the winter.Retailers typically take advantage of the fact that many people resolve to lose weight in the new year by offering markdowns on fitness apparel and equipment to get them into stores. Schaffer says you can expect discounts of up to 40% on new styles of fitness apparel and shoes over the long weekend. Fitness equipment will be marked down 30% to 50%, Shelton says. Also look for deals on gym memberships and fitness classes.Furniture stores typically have sales in January to clear out old styles before new designs arrive in February. Look for discounts of up to 50%, plus 0% financing for four or more years, Schaffer says. (Wait until spring for better deals on mattresses.)Clothing retailers are clearing their racks of sweaters, coats and other cold-weather apparel to make room for spring clothing already. So you’ll find winter clothing discounted as much as 70%, Schaffer says. Wait a little longer to buy …
Some retailers might advertise sales on televisions this weekend. But you should wait until the end of January or beginning of February to get the best price on a brand-name big-screen HDTV. New models introduced at the CES usually roll out in February, so retailers mark down current models, Vu says. Plus, retailers also use the Super Bowl as a draw to get people into stores, Shelton says. Shoppers looking to upgrade to 55-inch or larger models that include built-in “smart” capabilities can expect savings of $300 or more, he says. Although so-called 4K resolution won’t be supported during this Super Bowl broadcast, January TV discounts will present shoppers with the lowest prices yet on these new high-resolution models, Shelton says.Wait until after Valentine’s Day to buy jewelry because demand will be down and discounts will be deeper, Schaffer says.Save money with these Macy's coupons, discounts and bargains. As the most complete site for free online coupons and discount deals, we offer the best selection of current Macys coupons.
coupon that suits you, please try one of the other stores in our free online coupons directory or bookmark this site and try again later. coupon codes and free online coupons in general, please see our help info. Although we check these regularly, please let us know if any of these Macy's coupon codes has expired. Be sure your expected discount from these Macy's coupons is applied before you submit your order or you will not get your discount!The building at the southeast corner of Fairview Avenue and Five Mile Road in Boise used to be a Kmart. Since closing in March, it has sat empty, an 84,000-square-foot, two-acre linoleum desert.The building is the largest of 29 retail vacancies in the Treasure Valley with at least 15,000 square feet, according to Boise commercial real estate agency Thornton Oliver Keller. A bigger one is coming: Macy’s will close its 8-year-old, 104,000-square-foot-store in Nampa’s Gateway Center within the next few months.Five Hastings stores in the Valley closed when the media-and-gifts chain folded late in 2016.
Sports Authority vacated 45,600 square feet in Boise and 35,000 in Nampa. Paul’s Market closed 35,000-square-foot stores in Nampa and Caldwell after being purchased by Albertsons.With big-box and mid-box (15,000- to 50,000-square-feet) stores closing, Bob Mitchell, partner and retail specialist at Thornton Oliver Keller, says it is hard to find a tenant who can fill a Kmart-sized expanse. So he is trying a different approach: He is negotiating with four smaller retailers interested into parceling the space into chunks.“We still have good retailers,” Mitchell says. “They are just not taking quite as many square feet as in previous years.”Natalie Lemas Hernandez, chief operations officer at Nancy Lemas Team, a Boise commercial real estate agency, paints a darker picture for big-box retail.Stores are losing sales to “showrooming,” when customers come to the store to research or try on goods before ordering them online for less, Lemas Hernandez says. and others have grown, she says.
Online retailers have lower operational costs than brick-and-mortar stores, and online sales rose 29 percent to nearly $342 billion from 2013 to 2015, according to Internet Retailer, an industry research website.“A lot of the big anchor stores have been closing left and right,” Lemas Hernandez says. Michael Ballantyne, managing partner at Thornton Oliver Keller, says the Valley’s 8 percent retail vacancy rate remains two points below the area’s 10-year average. The good news for commercial real estate agents is that transactions for Valley retail spaces have increased 17 percent from 2015. But absorption of available retail space in the Valley was down last year for the first time since 2009, according to TOK’s database, which Ballantyne says is evidence of “the Amazon effect.” Ballantyne finds more evidence in his own changing consumerism. He recently ordered a memory-foam mattress from Tuft & Needle that was delivered to his door. The ease of the transaction highlights why companies such as Mattress Firm — which has four stores and faces three competitors’ stores within minutes of Boise Towne Square mall — might not survive, he says.“
It’s the best mattress I’ve ever had,” he says. “Why would somebody tie a mattress to the roof of their Honda Civic when they can order it online and have it delivered to their eighth-story apartment?”Mattress Firm did not return a call requesting comment.Landlords still have to lease stores. We'll still be busy. I just think in the long run mix will be different. Michael Ballantyne, Thornton Oliver Keller managing partnerThe shift to online sales is changing what commercial developers build, says Jason White, vice president of marketing for Boise-based White-Leasure Development Co. The company, which develops retail properties throughout the West, is looking for a new tenant for a 22,000-square-foot Hastings space in Nampa and is building fewer big-box and multitenant projects. “The internet is definitely leaving its mark on brick and mortar,” White says. “The retailers who are successful will be the ones who do both.”To be sure, major retailers are already doing both as they invest in their own web operations.
in August to bolster its web presence. Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer and Albertsons recently joined a growing number of stores by offering online ordering for curbside pickup or home delivery.Meanwhile, Amazon plans a turnabout move into brick and mortar with a grocery store called Amazon Go. The retailer will test the concept with a store in Seattle this year. Amazon Go shoppers will scan their own items using a smartphone app, without a line or checker.Mall operators have been developing or planning their own apps to make shopping easier and more appealing, Lemas Hernandez says. For example, an app could direct shoppers to open parking spaces and deliver coupons to arriving customers, using their previous shopping histories to deliver deals most likely to intrigue them.Ballantyne says big-box retailers may find success by downsizing and converting stores “from destination retail into depots.”“Retail will see significant change over the next decade,” he says. “[Locations] will be where you can pick up an order at a store, or the space will be used as a distribution hub, more like a warehouse than a store.”
The growth of online sales has changed the way retail developers and property owners think about large anchor tenants as draws for smaller surrounding businesses, says Mitchell, the Thornton Oliver Keller partner.Grocery stores have been the gold standard for strip-mall anchor tenants, because they bring weekly visits from many shoppers, he says. Big-box retailers are also traditional anchors.Health clubs, such as Axiom Fitness at The Village at Meridian and elsewhere, are coming into vogue as anchors, Mitchell says. He is working to get a fitness center into one of the Valley’s vacant Hastings stores.“Dry cleaners like that people drop off clothes before their morning workout,” Mitchell says. “Take-out pizza places like that people pick up pizza on the way home from work. Different kinds of businesses can be viewed as anchors that people didn’t look at before.”Lemas Hernandez contends shopping malls in Mexico do better than American stores at offering customers experiences they cannot get online, including fashion shows, choir performances and play activities for children.
On a recent visit to a mall in Guadalajara, Lemas Hernandez watched shoppers play bumper boats and children take a half-hour long train ride. Adopting such attractions could help U.S. malls compete with online retailers, Lemas Hernandez says.“It’s way ahead of what our shopping experience looks like,” she says. “I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to stay. Those lessons also apply to small retailers: “If mom-and-pop shops aren’t able to adapt, I don’t see much of a future for them,” she says.Boise retailer Mixed Greens isn’t offering bumper boats, but the mom-and-pop art-and-gift store at 237 N. 9th. St. is taking other steps to make itself a shopping destination. It plans to expand soon. Owner Chris Gray says the shop’s first line of defense against online retail is offering mostly jewelry, beauty products and gifts items made by his wife, co-owner Molly Gray, and other local artists. The second is packing in customers during events such as First Thursday and Small Business Saturday.